The rainbow fish is an all time classic. This beautiful story about a gorgeous rainbow fish that discovers the joy of sharing has taken the world by storm. In our family the rainbow fish stories (and television episodes!) are a favourite with the toddler and preschooler crowd. We try to be creative in the way we tell stories and incorporating crafts is one way of doing that. Have a look to see how we made our perler bead rainbow fish and how we went on to use it for pretend play.

Making a perler bead rainbow fish

The first thing you’ll need for this book based activity is one of the many Rainbow Fish books by Marcus Pfister. Your local library will have many, but in case you would like your own copy, you can find the original book here. There are a number of variations on the original like this Good Night, Little Rainbow Fish (for little ones who find it hard to go to sleep) and The Adventures of Rainbow Fish, just to name a few. Once you start looking, you’ll find many, many more.

The next thing you’ll want is a fish shaped perler bead base plate and ocean coloured beads like in this ocean buddies perler bead pack.

Then you could read the story to your children and invite them to create their own rainbow fish. Or you could set up play tray with the book and an invitation to create a rainbow fish.

Whatever you think will work best for your little ones.

Using your perler bead rainbow fish for pretend play

Once the project is finished, there are many things you could do with your perler bead rainbow fish. You could for instance hang it on the fridge. Or if you made many you could hang them from a mobile.

We took the opportunity to get our under the sea “tent” (I still haven’t come up with a proper name for what I made!) out once again. It’s a surprisingly simple project that our kids LOVE. And because of all the buttons I sewed on, it’s perfect for displaying all of your ocean crafts and set the scene for a whole lot of magical under the sea dramatic play.

Creative storytelling through simple activities

To me it’s all about finding simple little ways to revisit popular story books and expanding the children’s view by presenting the same story from different angles. Through crafts and activities children gain different experiences from motor skills to language development and creative thinking. We all learn through play and play is what we do best.

I wrote an entire article about creative storytelling named 12 ways to tell a story, which you might want to skim through for inspiration.

You can also have a look at our story baskets and other book based activities here.

In the mean time, enjoy the perler bead craft fun!

Ann*

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